Russell Shepard

it's kind of hard. Uh. I got a whole little you know, with the mass mandate all that stuff from you know. I got certain masks I can wear when I'm traveling, and certain was I can and so I have my I couldn't have my glasses on, so I had I wear headphones a lot of times when I'm traveling. So I check in. I'm like, man, I don't know how long the lines are. Man, I'm gonna just go ahead, go ahead and hit the head real quick, go to bathroom.

Meredith is not in her head that he just said hit the head, right, So I'm going to go palty and gon use the loop. So I go to the bathroom. I'm walking to the bathroom. And I got my roller back because I do a lot of carry on. I got my my, my, my, my bluetooth. And there's a bluetooth. Mom like when the old players that got the blue that got the bluetooth just said, you know what you say, bluetooth, I don't have the head set from the guy and uh their head hold on, shout of the spice a

hold alright, where's where is the not? Chuck? Yeah, that's that's how you're walking around there. And I was on the phone with you. That's what you did. He say, Hey, hold a minute, hold on, hold on, I got out the line. Chuck. Yeah, if we get get so soon as up going. I got my roller back back. And there's a guy who football football analogy scampers to the restroom and kind of cuts me off, goes in the bathroom.

He had to go back. He had the potty dance right, he had to sign self aside self with scamper forty gets to the bathroom. He uses the bathroom. I'm using the bathroom. I turned, I go to wash my hands. He proceeds to take several steps to the right, not straight. The right is to the door, so so what did he not do? You? You was on the phone, I said, tell them what I said, Gee, hey this you know what? I didn't wash his hands? I said a loud enough

in here. I said, oh, you wash your hands. I said, you ain't gonna wash your hands, so you're gonna damn the run me over. I know, dramatic being like little, but you ain't gonna wash your hands. Oh you just go, I said, Oh, so you're just gonna go go out there with them pissie tips. That's disgusting, man, Like, that's just that's that's like top top three and it ain't two or three most disgusting things you can do. And that's before COVID. I don't care like, that's before COVID. Like,

it's just nasty. How do you use the bathroom and not wash your hands? Like you are a disgusting individual if you do such things. He rolls his eyes. Oh, he responded, yeah, you never told me that. He response. He rolled his eyes and said, you roll you eyes. You you need to put some soup on your tips. That's what you need. So he washed his hands begrudgingly. You should never recretingly wash your hands after after your native right that that should not be something you begretguingly

do this. Dude go to here, almost run me over, and he ain't gonna wash his hands, Isn't he be shamed me yourself? So he washed his hands and when we came and he went out, and uh so it was just one of those things. Man. That's one of the things I dislike, is where beyond the pandemic. I'm telling you, it's just one of those things. I'm in the airport so much. You see a lot of nasty things that people do, and I think it's you know, with you ad the pandemic hygiene would you always say Joe,

Joe says this about hygiene, and I think it's masterful. Well, first of all, hygiene's free. That that is masterful, and we all know, like you don't need a pandemic or something being this basic, just basic, like wash your hands. What's better is MoMA didn't teach you this. What's better is you know we've been there, like when someone didn't and then turned around, realize it's Steve. Don't try to

tap him up like at the restaurant. I don't care who it is that told you no bunch should have to tell you have to tell you something is going on, and then you're gonna who what else do you do? You're gonna touch your face, You're gonna chick someone else's hand. Hey man, this cut to It ps A, wash your damn hands. That's it. That's all we're asking you to do. That's it. Wow. Who we got coming up on the

Cut to It podcast? We've got Russell Shepherd, a seven year NFL veteran for the Eagles, Bucks, Panthers, and Giants, and a standout for L s U. Russell is now a thriving entrepreneur with one of the fastest growing waste management companies in the US, Sheep Boys Waste Management. Russell Shepherd on the Cut to A podcast. First segment, it's called get Iced Up Their random ice breakers. Smitty select him at random? Smitty, why don't you go ahead and

give him the first one? All right, you're granted already, you know you know it's gonna be You got a grand all right? If you wouldn't get hurt, would you rather skydive? Yeah? Or view sharks from underwater cage? Which one would you do if you knew you weren't gonna get hurt. I probably gotta see that shark. I gotta see that beast. That's a that's a guard creature. You know, that's an amazing thing like that much respect for the predator. So I'm gonna be I'm gonna be racist. You know

how to swim? Racist? How that swim? I mean, I spent four years in Timple. I look, I jumped in the water. I was with Louis Murphy, you know what I'm saying. I'm pretty sure you know Louis Murphy this and Jackson recipes and they called me and um a few other cats. We went on. We went fishing one day and boy as we jumped in the water and they're like, you know, I got to feel how powerful

that ocean was, you know what I'm saying. Being in that day literally probably not even probably forty five seconds, and men that we got out of the water, a shark hit the boat like that was that was. I never I never get back in the ocean again like that. I go to the beach, but not in that water. So you so you just played uh better being shark mate. You know the way my life is structure right now,

I don't see no water, you know, but wastewater. That's the on the water I'm saying on the day to basis, all right, what personality traits would you like to change in yourself? You know I tend to be, you know, a micro manager. I'm I'm a very hands on individual. I believe you know what you ask people to do, you need to you know, you know you need to show that in your day to day you know how you operate. So to me, the trusting you know, you know,

not micro management. And like I said, I'm learning that, especially you know, being a boss, you know, CEO, trust people you know to do that job because I can't do it all more, especially at the rate that we're born. Would you rather be a hobbit or elf? For twenty four hours? Elf? What's the different? What's the difference other than one worst for us? For god, like a temporary job for a few weeks. What's the difference? Man, I'm

gonna I get to see sound of hobbit. It was open in the question too, Like bro, I wanted you to Steve, I want you to answer to what's the difference? And look, if you keep it, G if I keep if I keep it g I was born with a deformed. So I have skinny ear at the top of my ears skinny. So I was used to get called the elf as a kid growing up. You know what I'm saying. So this this dude then put his elf identification. Now it's like the conduct. Yeah right, I'm not touching that. Um,

I mean, this is my show show. I don't have to be either one. I would just be no. I was just ask me what the difference is. I really, I really don't know which. I just wrote this. I reat question. I'm like, man, I'm good, but I do like it. Um all right, man, So I you know, let's just kind of jump into it. Where are you from in a place you call your hometown. I'm from Houston, Texas a k Ahetown, Man. I was going to raise

lived out over, lived all over the city. Um. You know, this is where me and my wife here when I was playing. You know, we came home offseason. That's where we lived. We bought a house out here about seven years ago. So this has been the place I've been really outside of my NFL career. In four years, I was in college h town. You know who some of

your favorite Houston artists. Then I love Houston music. Um, you know what I'm saying, I'm a big fan of the just in general, the you know Bumby, you know pm C. You know, you can throw a few other people, the young people in here, you know making Scott, you know scar Face. It's a even you know what I'm saying. You know he wanted to you know, the good guys from the city that puts on the city. So I love it. We sleep, we sleep on scar Face. That was a class fix to fix classic album. I have

not slept on scar Face. I roll Scace. If you if you're from Houston and you talk about music and you don't mention scar Face and Pimpsie, you know, you ain't know. You weren't born in the city. You're a suburb baby, or you you're just young, you infants because the music has changed, like smile scar Face. Yeah, but I'm gonna keep it you with your big brother. You know, some music probably like where you're from. Some stuff that's timeless. Like even the little kids know that out here, they

gotta know the star Face. They got no PIMC, they got no Big Mo, they got no certain things. Because it's so it's so embraded in the culture people riding around with these swangers and these certain things and these cars, and you know where they talk. They get it from these these artists. But you know that generation also doesn't know the history as well exactly. That's the problem, That's

what you know. I had to said this way. That's wh watch a lot of these boys walking around here with their paying sag and so they're looking at their draws because they think it's cool, but don't even really understand what they really symbolize. Right then, I don't want to get into like really acknowledging that, but I think understanding your history, right, understanding and why, like you want

to look cool, but who are you really? Who you replicating people that you don't even really understand what you replicate. And so I think, you know, just watching the young guys like, uh, it was really cool. My seven year old right now, all he really he knows it's Baltimore, right he was just born where I was playing in Baltimore. He literally just said it over the weekend, he said, he told my wife, he said, Mommy, I'm pretty lucky.

Steve Smith is my daddy. He just said someone has said something to him and he's just connecting the doctor right, and and and so it's even and why is that thing is? Sometimes I'll be watching film or like my boys just say something, or we'll be watching something. We're watching the show, and then I flashed up. He's like, Daddy, why are you were in that kind of jersey? And and even though it was watching something that had hair, he goes that he got hair, right, just kind of

understanding that, you know, the history. And I think I think with technology man our our young folks miss out on so much history because it requires us to requires them to sit down longer than two minutes and be focused on something. And the old stuff you can't you can't put it in the uh you know story on in TikTok. Like it requires a little bit of attention and a little bit more than just some you know, some some clips. Yeah, I mean like West, we're saying,

like you're from Houston. So culture transcends, right, Like even I'm from North Carolina. So the culture transcends, but it ought to be passed down a lot of people just don't even bother to sit down with the O. G s and and for lack of better term, the elders to even just be able to download that to mention. Yeah, yeah, you're right about that. You're right. The ones that do, though,

they have a little more success. Life tough. So you right now, when you don't, when you don't reach back and ask people that can do it, you know, you kind of you stumble a little more. And us that do. You know, they tend to have a little better the chance at life. You know, right about that. You gotta they got received it. How did your upbringing shape you? You know, it was big for me, you know, especially once I got to the league, because you know, my dad is my dad is he he's from the streets.

You know, he came from you know, he was he was he was in high school, crackhead, and he was an inner city kid. And you know, even throughout his adulthood, you know, it was he was like, it's affect this community. You know, it's turned turned to a nice suburban area into a raw, a raw area, you know, just kind of change. So my dad, my mom and dad had me early. And my mom, you know, she got pregnantly you know, when I was chasing you know, high school, and my dad was just out of high school and

he transitioned from the streets. You know what I'm saying. As I grew, you know what I'm saying. When I became you know, you know, a young kid and got into my teenage years. My dad by that time, he had more the trades. Um. You know, he used to come home with a pocket full of money and um, you know, he was dirty though, you know, he was like he didn't work. You know how I've seen that, Like I didn't see him and nothing nice and flamboyant, Like he came home with some money he brought home

to the families. So, you know, fast forward when I got to the league and I and I and I got the money like we all do at that time. You know, with me, I what I seen was how my dad was making money having these trades. He was a dumb truck guy. He was an a c man. He was what he was doing with his money bringing home to the family, investments in real estate. So we was in the hood and my dad's had it was a house and in the hood, and he was like, man,

it was behind the hospital. He was like, look, they they're gonna there's nothing else around that that house but a hospital and McDonald's and buildings. He said, they're gonna buy that shipped out one day and uh, fast forward seven years later. Man, they bought the house. He bought the house for thirty thousand dollars. And um, when we got out seven years later, they gave us a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to leave the street and they turned that house into a parking lot. You know what

I'm saying. They bought the whole blockout, you know what I'm saying. And we transitioned from the hood to the suburbs, and I was able to get in a better schooling system. I had a better surrounding environment, so I got the witness state growth. And they did it the right way. So when I got to leave, you know, I knew coming up, how will you introduced a football? You know, Well, like I said, we was in a tough neighborhood. You know what I'm saying, So keep us acting my dad,

but us in sports, you know what I'm saying. I had a bunch of cousins, first cousins. My dad had a lot of siblings and were all the same age, and they just threw us in sports to keep us acting. So, uh, you know, I started playing around like seven eight and then I just know I got good. I just kept

getting better and it became an obsession. You know, the parents can lead you to the water and the kid, but it's up to the child to to take kind of adopt that adopt that obsessive trade and go over and beyond to get You know that everybody isn't Mike Evans length and span and can start playing, you know, in the twelfth grade, let get great. So you know, I got to see my dad work hard. I got into sport early. I took that football and I just kind of took off. Now we know you are Swiss

army knife. When it come to the positions, where'd you at least start your positional start? Yeah? So I started running back. You know Little League, that's where everybody play. Everybody right running back to the running back. You know that's the easiest thing. You know that it's early in the game. You know when we were playing, it was it was very simple. Now there they throwing that thing. You know what I'm saying. But you know I've learned to you know, going to school like ls you starting

off a running back. I respect the art of running and how the simple seticity that comes with running the boss. So you know, I love started off with running back and then once I got high school, they threw me a quarterback Oregon. It was on Alex Smith. You know what I'm saying. So so you start off and running back and now you're your quarterback, and you become pretty

damn good quarterback, right you. You becomes highly recruited and you go to l s U. You got under arm are all America Number three athletes or ESPN one fifty. They switch you to quarterback immediately, Like how did that transition go? Like walk us through that process for you and take us through everything you were feeling through that transition. Like you said, I was a highly recruiter player. You know, I went to school. I could have went to the school pretty much, and I chose the l s U

because the possibility to play quarterback. A lot of schools were Nick Saban came to me and told me, you know he you know, I didn't know Nick Savan like that because, like I said, my dad wasn't the ball player. So he came and seeing me. Everybody at the school is really excited. But you know what I'm saying, you know, but I'm like, you know, being a Texas kid, I had only my level of of of of football history. My dad wasn't telling me about these other great players

and coaches. So when he came, he's Nick Savan told me, hey man, he said, I think you can go here and win the highs and here and do that. He said, you, I think you can come to Alabama play d D for me and be a first round pick. Looked at him like he was crazy, Like I'm not. I'm not. I'm at this point, I'm the number one player in the country. I got games on es esken you know, usually high school back when we was comed up high school dbs where you to the receivers that couldn't catch.

They wasn't these ball skilled cats that they got Now they're developed, So like to say, I tasked for like I said, Nick Saban said all that I was looking crazy, which is probably the worst decision of life, not to facts my left my ball skills being able to play the D beyond him. He wanna be a first round pick, second early seer, you know, like, but he seen it because like he was the only one mind tried to turn me into a dB um. He told me that after I got to college. When I met him, Mac

Brown told me he wanted me to play dB. I just didn't see it. I didn't have nobody telling me. But when I got the l s you brother, and I see how the boys strowing that ball, I was like, if I want to play at the next level, and if I want to make it, have opportunity to take care of my people, you know, and do what I need to do. I gotta I gotta make a change. So I went to coach Miles, probably towards the end of the season. I was like, Coach, I think I

wanted to do it. And Percy, however, was hot. You know, there was already schools are already selling me on that person, Harving Roll when I was coming out of high school. You know what I'm saying. So you know, I just thought it made sense for me to get this twitch you get too. I was saying, my guys, get hey. You know, it's one thing in high school when you start seeing how cats coming back to college and they got this and they got that. Oh ship, I need

to make the best business. I love cut to it, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at? That's at? Cut to it on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to it Facebook? Cut to it featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my

answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother, cut to a podcast dot com. When they have that athlete designation some people, I think it's recepted either way. So you're saying you were open, you were open to whatever. I mean. After after he saw after he saw the competition, he had to get on campus and realize yeah, um yeah that this athleticism. Uh the boy got some arms. Yeah yeah,

yeah yeah. And I was seeing, like dont Robinson, I've seen it like I always take five and looking at the big I could have been college fact had broke the records, and I was like, if I want to have me and Donart Robinson came out of college same year you played four years I played I played seven. I could have played more if I wanted to, you know, I decided to stay. So I feel like I've always

made business. So it sounds like based off what you witness with your dad and his transparency and his his great work ethic and your mom and his entrepreneurship and thinking, his forward thinking, and also the I think one of the things that we get caught up in is we call ourselves entrepreneurs because we have ideas, but if we

don't execute them, then they're just ideas. But your dad had an idea, follow through with the idea, and then also had a proven successful track record that showed after seven years that when he bought this house for thirty dollars, he just didn't bump his gums and talk about it. It came to fruition with it. What hundred dollar profit?

They're like, hey, one long term you gotta be patient, and two that forward thinking and also execution that you were able to see, like, man, Pop knows exactly what he's talking about, because you know, back in in at home, there's always a lot of guys talking right and say, oh, man, do this do that? And then you asked them did

they do it? And the and the answer is really no, they didn't do it, you know, And so seeing that, so let me, Actually, you play seven years in the league, you always had the thought of making business decisions because of the way your pop led his household. How early in your career were you already thinking about life out after football? Man? As soon as I got to that motherfucker excuse my language, you know, alright, So it's like I said, my fucking man, like I said I was,

I was undrafted. Now we talked about how Hollywood cruit I was, you know, after college, my college career, from the beginning to the end, I played more of my first two years than my last. My last two years, you know what I'm saying. You know, I went through a from a family situation. You know what I'm saying. It was just a tough time for himself. My sign should I had a seventy five dollars signing bonus at

the Texas EMMA Focus supports hunted. So I knew if if I got if I had an opportunity to make the team. If I knew, you know, if if I got to the check, I was already thinking what I had to do. So you know, my dad, he got into the dump truck. My grandfather was in a dump truck in thirty years and my dad he played with that throughout my childhood, Like sometimes he'll hustle with that and that guy spoke, he'd do his other things, but you know, the dump truck and thing was probably the

thing I knew right off the back. I can handle if I made twenty thousand and thirty thousand dollars check, you know what I'm saying. So you know, when I when I made the first year, thank god I made. I end up getting cut from Philly at the final cut, but I got claimed right before the first game by Temple. So you know, I played for the Temple four years straight and never got cut. So my first year, after I made my check, you know, I was talking to my pops, you know, because I was living with him.

My first two year is an off season that I got in in the league. I was like, man, what I what I need to do off the riff. He's like, let's play with these dumb trucks. So, you know, from the first my first year, man I invested. You know, I was saving money because I was you know, I wanted to marry my beonce at the time, and I was just thinking, like, what's the first thing. How I'm gonna flip this money? You know, saying how would keep

keep this, keep this going, make something from this? Because I was my first three years, I was a week the week. So you're saying, how are you gonna flip this money? You know how? You right? Yeah, I do. And so you're saying, how you're gonna flip this money?

Take me through when you are were you raised? How did you not make some of the mistakes these young boys making where you look at flipping your money and making it legal Russia, flipp your money and trying to get that fast money and maybe doing some illegal stuff. The reason before you answer the reason I'm asking all this, and I'll just set the stage. Man, I love you know, we got the same financial god d C. And DC always kind of tells me about you, and I'm just enamored.

And it's remarkable, bro, Like how and you're thinking and what you're doing and balancing, and then also too the humility that you have and you literally willing to get to deal with the BS, right you and waste management you and liquid waste manager you. You literally excuse my friends, you're dealing with ship all the time. Right, You're dealing with people's bullshit and then you're dealing with literal you different with every aspect of it. Brother, that's such that

that's that's such. Appreciate that, that is such as the dynamic of it. No, the dichotomy of like what you're doing, you've been at the in our world right now? You would. I would, because they consider if you are, if you have that shield next to your resume in any kind of way, as an intern in public relationship people are people are giving their left left kidney to say, Hey, I intern for this team, and hey, I want to

get it. I have. I have a dude that called me yesterday, that text me yesterday and said, man, can you write me a letter of recommendation to be a wide receivers coach. I'm not gonna say. The person name is probably listening, go hear this. I don't know how to respond because technically I don't even know if he's a good wide receivers coach. I don't even know what. I don't see his I look at his file empty. I don't know. So I'm asking and I'm really setting

the stages. You played in the lead seven more years than someone else. But yet you're doing something to half these people if they got the opportunity, including myself. Now I'm good that I prefer a different trade. And you're doing that trade with a smile in your face. You're doing what excellence. You're employing other people of color, You're employing people in general, not just people of color, just in general. And it just is so abstracting, Bro, It

just doesn't make sense. But then knowing you and and seeing your film and watching your grind man, you legally you always gonna do what's gonna put food on the table,

and you are never above anything. And so I have to set that stage because you should say to say, Bro, you do poor the pottoies you do look with wastes, Like how did you get into business and be able to sit here in front of us and say, I Russell Shepherd, And I know I'm good enough and I'm okay what I do because of blame blame blame, blame black. Like I said, I got the witness and my people grow up. My mom she she had me, she was seventeen, My dad was twenty. You know, you know what I'm saying.

So I was very aware and open to the thing, and like I said, you, as a parent, you gotta be very cautious of of with your day to day actions and what your your routine is, because your your children will unconsciously take that up on him. So again, fast forward, when I watched my dad take care of his family, he was dealing with ship that people didn't want to deal with. He was, he was in dumb trucks. He was, you know what I'm saying, trash so and it was great. He was coming home with a pocket

full of money. And I was as a kid, I was like, damn, like, you know, okay, this is how my dad. That's how he was taking his family. And like I say, so, I was. I was never too big. I wasn't thinking about flashy cars. I wasn't thinking about you know, the typical kid. When you grow up in the household, especially at minority, you're gonna have uh the house was going to be more so under two hundred thousand dollars, but the car is gonna be closer to

a hundred thousand dollars. In in the in the real world, the financial the right way, it's not supposed to be like that. When you're trying to come up and do certain things for family. So watching my people in them success and again my dad was a good thing. But my mom, my mom worked in corporate America for twenty plus years. She was in HR. My mom was a medical practices, you know, billion dollar corporate companies. So my mom, you know what I'm saying, And she didn't go to college.

She was just very witty, very good with the mouthpiece, and she was just very sharp. But she was a good sponge and research person. So my dad was putting in some sports and ship. But my mom was putting me in like um nonprofit um like committees to children and in business classes. And she was taking me to the nicer parts of Houston and putting the putting me in certain things. And she was taking me from the hood.

And my mom always every morning, I never went to school in the hood, Summitty, Never, my mom took up wherever we was at. She was gonna wake up. He was waking up at four and taking me to the birds. And she wasn't taking me to all white schools. She was taking me to schools that were very nixed. She wanted me to have a real life experience, you know what I'm saying. She wanted me to be able to

communicate with different people. So you know, like I said, when I got to college, as you know, when you get to college, most of us a shell shop because we've never been around these type of people. So you so you're not going to maxim You're gonna maximize the field aspect, the football aspect of it, because that's who you are. But what we like to maximize in college is the networking. And that's the biggest that's way bigger than the football. And so when I got to college,

I was talking to everybody. I was talking to the white kids, the the athlete, the professors, the business people, the people like the alumnis, talking to everybody. So you know, like I said, I was already sharper than those things. So I just knew I just had to get to the money. So you know, like I said, when I I when they told me, look, man, you don't have that much film. We don't know really what position you

want to play. You just but you can still make a living by going out here and just knocking somebody head loose and running special teams. I was like, man, ship, this this where my athletic ability, my mindset. You know, I was like, I can do this. So I was able to build a career off of that man and then um from building that crew. Over seven year period, man, I started like two, I've started three companies. I've started. That's the thing you gotta start. So I started the

trucking company. I did well with that. I got up to my five trucks, you know, But throughout that process, I realized this wasn't the way I wanted to provide and take care of the family. I knew there was better ways. You know it It's a lot of overhead with those trucks, and you deal with a lot of wear and tear. So you know, once I collected my return on my investment, you know, my fourth year I gave I had a career year. You know, miss and Jackson rescue Peace to the homie. He got hurt and

I was able to. You know, the thing is with special teams, you're gonna make a team, and that I just lacked the reps. So throughout my four years I was on I was a scout guy. I was Steve Smith. I was this person. I was that receiver. So over four year year career I developed as a receiving my it was catching up to my athletic ability. So when this to Jackson Tour, his his a c L his last year, nobody it was Mike Evans and nobody else. Cecil Shwarts had a career. In the injury Lewis Murphy

got hurt. I was the next man enough, so I played opposite of Mike Evans from week eight to week sixteen. I was able to off twenty three catches and um three hunting and ten yards. Man. I was able to gain a lot of interests from the off season, and I knew I was gonna make some type of money going into that next year. So I gave the trucking company to my mom and dad. That's kind of like

a gift, man. I was like to thank you out for everything, and they just inherited trucking company, and you know they That's how they took care of themselves throughout my career until they sold the company and became partners for me in my last venture, which is the waste Manager management company. But like I said, I've done a lot of things, Man, I invest you. We have the same financial guy, bro. I asked a thousand questions investing

in things from a it was up there. Hey, hey, hey, he said, no, don't don't give out on the secret. I like listen, I like I like all the you know, these are my guys. But a lot of people think I'm dumb and ignorant. Man, I want to keep that personal. I like, I like matter of fact, a matter of fact. No no, no, no, no no no. Let me say it's real quick, because look, I will say I've a comfort a lot of my young life, and you know, I'm proud of that. I've gone out and I've done

the research. But when I say Smithy has one of the best portfolios that that is out there right now, I would I would say so, Actually, I ain't. I ain't gonna put too much on it. I ain't gonna say it all. But when I will say he has one of he has one of the best portfolios I've

seen um from any NFL professional athlete. Russell, there was something you posted on Instagram, your Instagram at Russell Shepherd Nineteam a few weeks ago that that I want both of you guys to talk about it and kind of dismount because everyone has this preconceived notion that when you walk into the NFL that you're automatically loaded that everything that all your worries are cast aside. So you wrote this post and it said rookie's playing on the minimum.

The minimum salary is six thousand dollars. After that their tax, which leaves two hundred forty four thousand dollars. The remaining amount is three hundred and sixty six thousand dollars, which doesn't include agent fees, union dudes, full one K contributions,

living expenses, et cetera. And so you wrote on this, Uh, you at twenty one would have thought of a million dollars lasting you a lifetime, But after spending almost a decade in professional sports, I quickly realized if the individual lacks proper knowledge and the right resources, that money could be gone in months. Take time to educate yourself so we can start investing properly and owning ship for the two year old. Because you guys have so much of

this financial prowess. Kind of dismantled because when I read this, it brings it to life. But dismantling that notion of you made an NFL, you got bookoo money, you've got money coming out like dismantled that for our listeners. Well, agent fees are three percent full one K. Back when I was playing for one K my first year, it was only like four or five thou dollars. Now it's

up to two dollars and it's all still. You can elect to take your to to opt in or opt out to form one K the union dudes, and around ten thousand dollars you have the opportunity to opt in or opt out. UM three is your three percent of your agent fee. Is the amount that he negotiated. Now not what's that gross? Yeah, yeah, before it's before taxes,

so it's not what you bring. So if you if he gives you a million dollars a year, that is three percent of a million dollars, which is thirty thousand dollars. Not the you know Russell because he lives in in Houston, it's forty percent. But for a regular four seven point five percent, right, So if you get a million dollars, it's ryan. For me, it was about four hundred twenty five thousand. You take thirty thousand, so that releaves me

with about three hundred ninety four thousand dollars. And then if I do, then they divided up into they divided up into uh seventh, you know, it used to be sixteen weeks, now seventeen weeks, so that's equal up to about twenty thirty thousand dollars a check. And you only get it really for the full seventeen weeks, so you have to you have to manage the other So seventeen weeks six months, you got to manage the other six

months of the year. Um. You know, it is one of the things that you know because people see us as we get paid a king's ransle to play a child's game. People don't really want to. People don't care and hear your financial issues right once you give that

check back and blah blah blah. But at the end of the day, a football player is no different than any other corporation which you have people that blow their money and organizations in corporate corporate America every single day you've got CEOs who live in paycheck to paycheck, just like you have football players living paycheck to paycheck. Right. Um, so it is a very much a business in which

you can enjoy the business. But if you want don't have a good understanding of money and also have some good people around you, and you also are teachable and you desire to you desire to be, desired to learn Russell. I'm pretty sure, Russell, because we weren't on in you

weren't in Carolina together. Russell got introduced to d C through Stewie Jonathan Stewart, but Stewart was my teammate, and I worked on Stewart for about six or seven years before I left, right, And you know, and so like you're saying, is I've mistakenly and intentionally at times, I like the people think that I'm dumb, that I don't know exactly what's going on, that I that um don't have money, and and even me doing TV, people think, well, he must be broke. It's really I'm forty two years old.

I just don't have anything else to do. I just can't sit at home, and you know, sit at home to play video games and in order Amazon out the wazoo. You know, I gotta do something. And I just like talking ball. It gets my will spinning. Key's the hamster going. Let's say, you know, And I think Russell, his his his post says it all. It's just like I would say. The way he explained it, it would be like when you order something to fast food when you order, you go up to fast food and you say, hey, this

is what I want. You tell them what you want. The only thing they ask is do you want You know, if you order a burger, they say do you want pickles? Onions? What do you want not want on it? And then they say do you want a medium? Large? Small? That's it when you drive up to the front. Magically, all of that stuff is whipped together and it's there in the bag that you pay for it. That is what

the finished product of football is. However, there's someone that has, first of all, to start today, there's someone that's gotten the truck and put that order together to drop off to that to that franchise. Then there's they have to have a license to drive a CDL license to drive that. Then they drop it off and somebody puts it into order, somebody unloads it, and somebody cooks it, and there's such

a long process to it. But what you see from these players on Sunday, and also what you see from these players financially, is there's a lot that goes into it. That is, you don't see how the sausage is made all the time. You just see the finished problem and sometimes the finished product is not even close to really presenting how much hard work the journey was, what the journey was, and also how many other people have been included in getting that process, whether there's coaches, where there's

good coaches, bad coaches, whatever the case may be. And so I just think he summarized it well as a million dollars if you gave you know, And that's how my financial journey started. They asked me, someone asked me, if I gave you a million dollars, because you live off of the rest of your life. Man. We did a quick summarization, and I realized very quickly, I'm screwed. I cannot quickly, you know. He was like, are you

gonna buy your house? Bang? Man? By time we was done after that million dollars, we didn't even do taxes. We just did buying a house, buying a car, paying for taxes. Bro. After after a year, after buying all the stuff I need, I think I had like fifty thousand or seventy five thousand dollars left because I bought a house about two cars. That's gonna be tough, right, And he and then was like, and that just kind of showed me man, this mirage of being flashy, right,

And I say this jokingly. Man, I've been on Nike. I've been on the Nike app, you know, since ithing no longer. And I actually negotiated my underarmor deal tour. I had an under armor like at least what two or three years I think it was two years till I was done playing. I was still getting Nike stuff, right, I had a hundred thousand dollars of expenses that could order with Underarmer, I'm sorry, and bro, I used to order under Armour like I would order under my all

my ski stuff. Right now, my attic is under armored. That stuff I ordered back when I was with an under armour, when I was with the Ravens. Right, it's stuffed stealing there with tags, Thank goodness. I ain't got that big, right. And so my point is that there's so much that goes into it and you just don't realize what it is. You don't realize how much it is, what it takes. And man, Russell, you're a prime example of utilizing the knowledge and the people around you to

get there. Good good, let's getting down to do good. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or fourth shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you

listen to podcasts. How has planned in the NFL and playing at the highest level helped you become a good business man, but also harmed you to your detriment as a businessman because of your ability to think ahead, to see, as we say, ball don't lie. You can always see honest guy never lies. You can always see that that ten thousand foot advantage. How was playing in the NFL helped you and hurt you in business, especially when it requires making adjustments. You know, your life and in sports

they very they go hand to hands. So you know, being able to play at that high level, you know it is you know, I have a motor that most people don't have. You know, I'm up every day at four o'clock. Today I woke up at three five. Oh you beat me. I was up at five, seven and seven.

That's the exactly exactly, so you're earlier rid. So you know, I said, it's helped me because you know, my journey has been my kind of my journey in the business world because you know, I went from being in five star hotels every week, traveling to the best stadiums, having on the best gear too. You know, now I'm doing

I'm in a ship truck. We transport liquid waste. You know, we're chef boys waste management and we're transporters and storage and storage and collectors of liquid waste of all kinds. With there's human waste, it can be grease, it can be septic um. You know. We also to a rental providers and portable toilets, handwashed stations, holding tanks on water tanks we deal with. We have restaroom trailers, the big fancy Russian trailer and some of the wheel's up event. So,

like said, we do a little bit of everything. Man, we we were growing. We're the fastest growing waste startup in the city of Houston. So I say all that to say is that we're growing fast. And in the waste industry, you always have to be able to adapt because you run into problems, unique problems every day. And it's no different if you're in solid waste and you're residents, residential trash pick up people homes or you're dealing with

poor de parties or r V traders like we do. So, you know, being able to adapt and being able to humble myself to get in these trucks, to get out on these any streets, and to do whatever it takes to learn the business. Because again I'm not a guy who comes from a waste a waste industry or a waste family. You know, so me and my family had

to get in and we had to learn. We had to be employee operate as they call owner operators, so we can grow and so we can really learn, because I won't be able to best leave my my team, best lead the people that depend on this if I don't even know what the hell I'm talking about. So you know, when I you know, when I got to NFL, you know, if I was always a leader, you know,

I'm a leader. That's probably a lot of guys they survive off different things in the NFL, you know, you know, once you the own the physical aspect, I didn't have the measurements, the unique speed, the rare ball skills. So my my leadership ability being able to get in the locker room that was very important. That hand in hand with my physical skill set, so you know, being able

to humble myself and play special teams. It was no different than me being able to get in the quarter potty truck and learn how to suck out of RV trailer after against splash you know a few times because exactly I'm dealing with reports. Now, I'm not dealing with footballs. I'm dealing with you know. Do you give you example real quick and I'm gonna talk your head off. So for example, to answer you the short phrase and answer your question, the ice storm hit in Houston. The ice

storm is unique. We don't get cold weather like that. It was seven degrees everywhere in the state of Texas. Everybody pipes bursts, so nobody could use the bathroom, nobody had any So portable toilest companies became very important, you know, portable toilests in general. So you know, if I had enough equipment and um just for you know, February, seven million dollars in that one day because of the volume of calls we got from the pipes that were bursting everything.

So you know, when I got to the yard and we get into the yard to prep the trucks and bea was to go out and make these emergency delivers and asad deliveries um for whatever, whether it's a handwash station. We delivered fifty handwash stations to Corporate h g B because they needed handwash stations employers we need. Delivered sixty portable toilets to an Exon plant because they needed for just one sector of their department. So when I got to the yards, so we can make these deliveries, and

we had numerous others. The truck, the water was frozen in the tanks and then the water was frozen underneath the ground. So we had to we can't do nothing in our innerstry. We don't have water. We transport over you know, probably two thousand gallons of water a week, you know, saying and that's how important. So when I got to the yard, I had to figure out how on the funk am I gonna get some water? So we can deliver these deliveries. We can make this money

and we can help the people that watch cars. They were people that watch cars. I had just define guys in the city that had mobile car washing things, and they had their tanks full of water and they and plastic. You know what I'm saying they're in a certain thing where they don't freeze, and some people have them indoors. So I was able to collect enough water from guys to have mobile car washes, and um I was able to to put in in the tank when our water

tanks and get to wherething to go. That's the guy. That's one story. And we deal with stuff, you know, we have, you know we do in our industry. We do well when times are good. We do well when times are bad, like when I say bad, when we have hurricanes, we have catastrophic things. We have spikes, you know, because people need, you know, these things for emergency youth. So we always have to be able to adapt and waste especially you know, when you're dealing on the horrible

toilet side. Like Steve said in the League, man, you gotta learn how to survive. And I said, everybody has unique skill setting and and it's up to you to to get the most out of that skill sets. So you know, there's no different in business. More of us would be great business owners if we were exposed to it, but a lot of us aren't exposed to it. And um I wasn't in the lock from talking about instagrams. So I was talking about investment deals. I was talking

about ideas. So you know, if we don't get it at home with our parents, because a lot of our parents worked for people and they don't even know, we have to change the narrative in the locker rooms and talk about it in the locker rooms. And what we can teach each other. We teach each other how to play ball and how to do other ship. We can teach each other how business. What were something to hiccups you encountered in the business world that you were unprepared for.

When I started my business, I was twenty nine. I had no work experience, I had no really no credit, no not because I was paying my house off. I did the things that you said. I secured my family's future from at least so if I come out with these crazy ideas like at least our house is paid on for, I can go be a janitor to take So you know with me is when I went to

to start this business to give in. The waste industry is kind of capital intensive, so nobody would give me any lines of credit, any money anything to start the business. I had to figure out a creative way and I talked to see a few other people, and I had to pretty much threatened of Chase that I'm gonna take my money and start a business. And and in the midst of me doing that, they gave me a line of credit to start my business. I'm a reward it

for you. You had to leverage to strongly suggest you had to left. We don't want to say that word. We don't want to say that word. We don't want to say that word. You had to leverage the current capital you already had in the bank and tell them, now, I'm gonna take this money out. You see, I'm good enough to hold my money in here, but it's not good enough to utilize this amount of money to be a guaranteur of to give me a line of credit

to do it. And so you had to leverage going to another bank for them to take a shot on you. And obviously not talking about four or five d dollars. You're not talking about like twenty thousand dollars. You're talking about put potentially six six digits a million. So you have to negotiate with them and leverage. I would take my million dollars out because I want to start a company and can you at least get me of my million dollars to start a business? And that was that's

what it took for that to happen. And I'm not putting worth your mouth and I don't know the answer, So I'm gonna ask, why do you believe you had to go to such extreme measures too to get it to push them to to to to get them to really see that you were serious for them to give you a line of credit on a million dollars, because I would imagine a million. It wasn't like you were asking,

I'm gonna go buy lottery tickets. You were telling them what you want to do, and you had to leverage what you currently had in there for them to give you that. What do you believe? That was everybody every aspect of how everybody provides and lives, and it's it's a business. So you know my financial guy that I was appointed through Chase um and I never had a private financial guy I was. I just Chase gave me a financial guy like they give everybody else who has money.

An investment counts. So the guy who was having my money, you know, he obviously didn't want me to take my money out because the fees. It messages with his his business, so you know he he is his job to do whatever it takes to keep as much money in the investment counsel. Because that's how these it's part of their business, part of their structure, how they win. So, like I said, when I was figuring these things out by asking questions and talking to people, I was like, well, Ship, you

know the bank won't give me no money. You know, the waste industry is unique, especially for urban black kid who's been playing footballers whole life. So nobody really even seen. They was like, Okay, well that's too big of a risk for us just to give you the money for you to do that. You know what I'm saying, You want you need to go work for intern. You haven't

even intern. I didn't have no experience. All I just had was my wife worked for a guy and he started a business in two thousand and nine when I went off to high school, and everybody was coming to in high school because they know if I was gonna be the next bench young who Percy Harving whatever. And I always remember John because John took his four one K and John started a waste company and his wife

and everybody thought he was crazy. At this point. In two thousand nine, he was executive at a big trash company. He was doing well, and he's seen a way where he could start a company. In two thousand and nine, you fast forward to two thousand and in twenty he's the owns one of the fastest growing companies in the country. Um he does about thirty million dollars annual revenue. He has over a hundred and fifty employees, and he owns

a third party waste company. And John does is. John calls every portable toilet company, every dumpster company in the country and says, hey, let me sell your stuff for you, and I'll sell your stuff for your regular price. He wasted such a big need people will pay thirty over normal pricing to to just get the ship out of

that way because it's nasty, it's causing causing problems. So he started Zeaters and it's a third party waste company and he sells people's portable toilets, fencing dumpsters all over the country. So when I got burnt out, I was getting burnt out towards my second year in Carola and the Giants to two thousand and nineteen, I reached out to John, said, John, give me some ideas, which I know you're doing well in the waste industry. What do you think I could do little to nois and with

just hard work and dedication and being a sponge. He says, started with a portable port propty company and that's where I got the idea to start the company. What John did for me, John says, Okay, I use about forty five I use about forty five county. Company is nationwide, and I used about six companies in Houston. And he says, what I'll do for you is if you go by brand new stuff and you hire right and you do right. Instead of using all those six companies, I'll use I'll

push everything through you. And I went and I felt, I mean I was. I was going crazy trying to figure out where to get this money to ball this. I was like, ship, do I spend all my money or I know, I don't need you all my money. So I was just figuring out asking people, got the money, bought the equipment and man the first month, man, it was an August. At this point, the Ravens called me. The Ravens wanted me to come work out me and dance Bryant, you know, come work out. And this is

the first month we was open. It took me about seven months to get it all open and everything and permits and all this stuff. And the first month I made like set like seven thousand dollars, and I was like, I've seen it. My overhead to that point was probably like eight thousand dollars, you know what I'm saying to run the company. You know, it was really low at that point. And I just see I like that, I'm

dand up covering my overhead in the first month. And then John Company he came and see my equipment and he started pushing me. The second month, I made fifteen, Third month, I made twenty five. Fourth month, I was down there in forty m Wow, you know what I'm saying, And like it was just growing and like and then I started learning how to sell my stuff outside of John's third party. I started using my l s U

connections that shield you talking about. I started going inside these big companies and I started and I was driving too, and I was learning the industry to talk to lingo and then I was just it just organically was coming together. And you know, like I said, Man, fast forward. We've been open a little bit over the years. You got the fast grown. We started up in the state of Texas and we're growing good. Man. We gotta staff about We have ten people right now and it's good people, man,

people that need the opportunity they wanted. They can work hard, and we're gonna continue to grow. Man, over the next four or five years. We should have you know, we shouldn't employed close to you know, thirty forty people. You know what I'm saying. We're growing that fast. So you know, I'm excited about what we're doing. Man, this this, this

is really good. Congratulations, Congratulations. Obviously your last year and with the Giants, you had Dave Gentleman, so you were dealing with bullshit and then I knew that I've been Hey, look Dave paying me. So look Dave, David's David is at old School Boston candidate, you know. And you know I can say this now that I'm I'm tired, and I got a lot of respects to that man days still talk to this day. Russell, your your husband, your father,

your NFL alumni, You're an investor, entrepreneur. Which of those things did you always know? You would be a good father man. I mean my dad before anything, he was apoples was said, he was the best man in my way. You know what I'm saying. At all my homies, all my my my, my cousins. You know, not having the father in the life effected a lot of people, you know what I'm saying. And not having the mother, you know what I'm saying. My mom is my mom is my my mom will run my company. You know, she

is my CFO. She she has you. When you call and you want to talk a bit business. You know you're talking to her, you ain't talking to me. I just make sure the company is going in the right direction. And I determined, you know, what goes and what stays. But like I said, I got some good people, you know what I'm saying. So just being a good parent was off the rif I had to do that, and I was gonna do it if it takes, you know, if I had to go, you know, be a trash man.

If I had to to to be a coach, and I had coaches and teams reaching out to me when I was before I was done playing. I hate Come be a scout, Come be a coach, you know, what I'm saying. So I had a lot of options, and I was willing to do whatever so I could buy. I think that's a question to him me to be the best parent I could possibly appreciate your time, brother man, looking forward to appreciate, looking forward to your hearing or

your story. Brou Yeah, you are a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singior, I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.

Executive producer Steve Smith SINGR, co host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all